BlogFEST 2012: Judging a Book by It’s Cover

I am well acquainted with this topic because I am usually on the end of being judged. Case in point, see the review I posted below about a recent visit to a favorite store:

“I just loved this store…when they were in XX Mall. Now that they moved to XX Village, they’ve gone all uptown in both merchandise and attitude. Let
me just give you a lesson in great customer service, which I am well
acquainted with and have been providing for over 25 years.

1. If
you want to have loyal customers, you should be nice to them. Just
because I’m not “uptown” doesn’t mean my money doesn’t spend like the
rest of your clientele’s money. For the record, I actually have money
even though I may not look like it.

2. Don’t have someone walk
around your store and act like they are better than everyone else there.
It gives a bad impression to your customers. You know what I am talking
about…the “holier than thou” attitude. Just a thought, but consider
shelving it.

3. If a customer comes up to you asking if you have a
product, don’t immediately say with an attitude, “If it’s not on the
shelf, we don’t have it.” How about saying something like “I am so
sorry, let me check for you.” Then go check and find out when more stock
will become available and come back and tell the customer “We are
currently out of that item, but we’re expecting a shipment on XX date.
May I take your name and number and call you when they come in?” See the
difference? Make your customers feel good when they come in and want to
buy something. Don’t shut them down and make them feel like they’re
inconveniencing you by asking a question about your stock. Repeat
business is huge…especially in a tough economic climate.

4.
Treat your customers with respect and dignity. Just because I don’t look
high class, doesn’t mean I am not. You don’t know what I’ve been doing
or where I’ve been. Don’t stereotype your clientele. Remember the movie
Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts? If not, you should watch it. There’s a
great scene in it that covers this very nicely.

5. Don’t let
customers wait to pay while you’re conversing, walking around like you
own the place or doing other work that can wait until the customers
leave the store. Not only was I treated rudely, but when I actually
decided to buy what I hand in my hand, I had to wait until said rude
sales clerk decided to come over to the register to ring me up. You do
realize that your customers are not all soccer moms that drive SUV’s and
don’t work. Some of us are on our lunch hour and that’s all the time we
have – an hour. You want us to come back and be loyal, well, a little
courtesy goes a long way.

By the way, what happened to the
products that you used to sell. Merchandise is everything. I realize you
moved, but part of your success at XX Mall was the fact that you
had great merchandise that appealed to everyone. Now that you’re in XX Village, your products are so upscale and pricey that you’ve
lost half of your clientele because we can’t afford, or sorry to say,
even like it.

Seriously, your products used to be cute and
charming. Now they are expensive, gaudy and frankly, most of them I
wouldn’t be caught dead owning them. What I purchased today was a staple
item…every home has them. It’s simple, comes in a lot of colors
(which apparently you don’t have a lot of since they “weren’t on the
shelf”) and fairly inexpensive.

Come to think of it, you didn’t
have a lot of this particular type of product in your store at all.
Pity…you were such a fun place with all the holiday decorations, etc. I
guess I’ll have to order more of what I wanted online since you didn’t
seem to care if you had it or not or the fact that I was a loyal
customer.

It’s your lose. I am sure the online stores will
gladly take my money and ship it for free. Fabulous as this saves me
time and money. Such great customer service too! You should take a
lesson from online retailers. This is why they are so successful and the
brick and mortar stores are dying off.”

Needless to say, I wasn’t a happy camper. Fortunately, I received a private email from the owner with her comment below:

Hi Susan D.,
This is Lynette, the owner of XX store. Let me say first of all how very sorry I am that
you left my store feeling so bad. I have worked for 31 years stressing
how important it is to treat everyone fairly and kindly, but as you know
it doesn’t always happen. The behavior you describe is totally
unacceptable to me and if I knew who it was I’d address them directly.
Instead I posted your review on our message board with a letter from me
telling them all that this “cannot happen”. It never should! Your
suggestions to my staff were all perfect and I hope hearing them from
you, the customer, made a bigger impression than I have been able to.
To
answer your concern about products, no it’s not the same as it was and I
have lost a lot of customers from the past. But that’s the tricky thing
about retail, if you don’t change you won’t be in business anymore. I
keep track of everything that is purchased and buy more of those things
that are selling and get rid of the categories that are not selling. The
customers basically “vote” for the things they like by purchasing them
and that dictates the direction I go. I know the store isn’t for
everyone, but it’s for the greatest number of buying customers. It’s
what has kept me in business for 31 years and we were just recently
voted “The Best”.
If you choose to continue to shop here, I’d love
to know how you are treated next time. I always appreciate it when
customers email or call me direct so that I can have a chance to rectify
what has happened that made them so upset. My personal email is XX and please feel free to use it.
Once again I am truly sorry!

Just to be fair, I didn’t write this review to get anything free from the store…I just wanted to share my honest feelings about the experience. I was truly annoyed at the whole thing and felt it only fair to let the owner know. I am glad she responded and maybe one day, I will go back to revisit.

In any case, this is my personal and most recent experience with being judged by my “cover”. It’s happened before and I am sure it will happen again. And each time it does, it truly hurts me deeply.

Wishing you moments of “not being judged by your cover”.

This blog was written as a part of BlogFest 2012. Check out Paula’s post – she’s the host today. Please click on the picture below for more information!

Liked anything you see here? Then contact me,
Susan Dusterhoft at todaysworkingwoman@hotmail.com. I am always looking
for more books/products to review. I can also provide assistance with
blog writing!